A Very English Scandal: Sex, Lies, and a Murder Plot at the Heart of the Establishmentl Reviewed By Sandy Graham of Bookpleasures.com

Sandy Graham

Reviewer
Sandy Graham: Born and raised in Canada, Sandy spent 35 years with
The Boeing Company in a variety of engineering and management
positions. After retirement, he satisfied a long-standing urge to
delve into creative writing.Sandy has authored three
novels, Two Loves Lost, The Pizza Dough King and Murder – On Salt
Spring?

This story is aptly titled
“very English” in that it provides a thorough, step by step
documentation of background culminating in the scandal that brought
down Jeremy Thorpe, then leader of the British Liberal Party. It is
much closer to a journalistic account than dramatized non-fiction and
certainly far removed from a tabloid thriller. It’s more suited to
reading in a comfortable chair than perched on the edge of one’s
seat. Yet, it does provide a compelling insight into the main
characters’ thought processes, actions and personalities.

Jeremy Thorpe epitomizes
the charismatic, manipulative narcissist who can, with power and
provocation, degenerate into sociopathic behavior. Unfortunately,
America has seen fit to birth a monster of this ilk that renders
Thorpe bland in comparison. To England’s credit, Thorpe’s actions
are still considered scandalous, though it would be unfair to suggest
he became truly sociopathic.

In Peter Bessell, we see
the unwitting adulator people like Thorpe surround themselves with to
carry out whatever actions he requests. Bessell is a mixed bag of
pious morality, bumbling businessman and easily led idealist. When he
finally realizes Thorpe is using him as he uses everyone, he turns
against Thorpe only to have his ineptness work in Thorpe’s favor.

David Holmes is another
of Thorpe’s lap dogs, ready to do anything he bids to curry favor.
And last but certainly not least, is the victim, Norman Josiffe
(later renamed Scott), mentally frail yet more tenacious than common
sense would have predicted. The book does an excellent job of showing
how these characters interact to bring events to their scandalous
conclusion. Though circumstances and the degree of damage and
retribution differ, this is far too often the impact of people like
Jeremy Thorpe.

Sex, claimed in the
sub-title, is almost entirely of the homosexual variety. Today, we
often tend to think of homosexuality in terms of a gay couple living
together quietly, perhaps raising adopted or artificially inseminated
children. We tend to overlook the dark side of homosexual rape,
coercion, harassment, bribery, blackmail and even murder. Thorpe
provided an effective refresher of this evil side, having committed
or tried to commit each of these things.

In
summary, John Preston’s chronical of Jeremy Thorpe’s very English
scandal provides a comprehensive and enlightening view into the
behavior of a narcissist and those he draws into his web.